


Naruto, the Friendly Ghost

by wei



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-14
Updated: 2010-03-14
Packaged: 2017-10-08 00:15:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/70727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wei/pseuds/wei
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sasuke thought it started after a misclassified mission to Wave Country.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Naruto, the Friendly Ghost

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Halloween meme at naruto_meme. Prompt: Sasuke has grown up with an "imaginary friend". Only he's not imaginary, he's dead. I'd prefer something angsty, with a touch of fluff, concerning Sasuke's best friend being ghost!Naruto.

Sasuke thought it started after a misclassified mission to Wave Country. He was still not sure what triggered it, though. It might have been his Sharingan activating, it might have been the death of an unwanted teammate, or it might have been his team falling apart afterwards.

It had all gone downhill after that mission. His late teammate, while he had been weak and forgettable when it came to being a ninja, had also been the tenuous glue holding the team together. He and Sakura were both too similar and too different to coexist: she hated his self-centeredness and cruelty, he disdained her lack of self-control and weakness, and both of them were too stubborn to forgive and forget and held on to things for far too long. (She still loved him, and he still respected her, at least when they were apart. When together, they inevitably rehashed old arguments. Sakura could never accept that Sasuke felt no grief about the death of their teammate, and Sasuke could never bring himself to fake caring that he had existed at all).

He didn't know if Naruto was even real, or if he was a hallucination. No one else ever saw him, not even his sensei with a stolen Uchiha eye, and no one else had ever heard of a Uzumaki Naruto, not even when Sakura looked up the birth records for every citizen born in Konoha since its founding. Sakura said that Uzumaki wasn't a family name native to Fire Country anyway. Still, Sasuke couldn't help but think that if he were crazy, he wouldn't have imagined someone like Naruto. (He would have imagined a pale skinned, dark haired woman, who was both stern and kind perhaps, or even a certain man he had sworn to kill.)

Naruto was always loud, whether in the echoing empty complex when Sasuke was trying to sleep, or when Sasuke was concentrating on sneaking past enemy line. Naruto would jump around and distract Sasuke, especially when Sasuke was dodging a rain of weapons, and when Sasuke would complain, Naruto would cheekily reply that he was keeping him on his toes. Naruto would nag him until he treated Sakura out for ramen, and then alternate between making eyes at her and Sasuke's bowl until Sasuke and Sakura would get thrown out for causing a disturbance. (Sasuke never minded the meal itself. He hated the aftermath, though, because it consisted of Naruto calling him a bastard for being so mean to Sakura and then forcing him to describe the flavors of his half-eaten bowl for hours).

Sasuke realized how pathetic his life was when he argued with Naruto for hours about the importance of adequate nutrition and was still happier than he had been even before his family had died. So, when Orochimaru asked Sasuke to follow him, he accepted. There really was no reason to stay when the person he cared most about in the village probably didn't even exist. (Naruto had complained about it for months, but as Sasuke had known, followed him to Sound anyway.)

(Years later, it was well known that the Rokudaime of Konoha would reward people with information about a solitary, itinerant ninja that had a tendency to argue with himself and rescue everyone around him. She never seemed to use the information, but no one ever confronted her on her interest in a crazy Uchiha. Her vice was better than drinking or gambling, and she could punch a man clear out of Fire Country if she wanted to.)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Now you see me (The Only You Remix)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1559654) by [Aviss](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aviss/pseuds/Aviss)




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